2025 Free Agency (other CFL teams Signings/News)

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

This is so true.  I always thought Can Mafia as more of a "nice guy" group -- KW comes off in pressers as such a quiet guy -- but they are pretty ruthless with the cuts.  Way more than I could ever be!!

I get it, but man that must be hard.  And it leaves a lot of sour tastes in player mouths, especially coupled with the "no / low contact" approach we hear about so often.

That said, I've never heard of it being any "better" in other clubs, so I guess it's what players expect league-wide.  It's a horrible industry if you stand back and look at it through just this lens!

It's always been the case that O'Shea plays the role of "good cop" and Walters plays the "bad cop" in the organization, he doesn't get close to the players and that's why none of them ever speak of him. He's said a few times cutting players is the hardest part of the job and perhaps that's why the communication at the end suffers, nobody wants to do it.

I read an article a long time ago that tied pro sports to slavery in theory, in that they treated players as property that could be bartered or sold and the college system was the plantation that prepared the athlete, it was an interesting proposition that used valid reasoning.  Don't think I could find it now as the magazine I read it in was so old it was printed on paper!

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

By that logic, every other GM who chooses not to offer their free agents a new contract is slamming the door shut on those players...? I disagree with that interpretation. The reality is this is just the nature of the business in pro sports. The Canadian Mafia is no exception from what I can tell, but this organization does seem by and large to treat its players as well any in the CFL.

Walters' job - like eight other GMs in this league - is to put together an optimal roster in terms of talent and depth. Those are complicated decisions, which means it's sometimes prudent to move on from certain players. And that includes long-time veterans, fan favourites, and even "face of the franchise" types who are simply past their before before date.

Of all those players you listed, I think Jeffcoat was the most puzzling decision. I don't know what took place in private between the two parties but I think he should've been retained. The rest seemed like sensible moves at the time.

In hindsight I think both Jeffcoat and Grant got lost in the wash when they were trying to re-sign Lawler, Brady and Schoen.  That process took a long time and left a few players hanging while they sorted it out, by the time Walters got back on track most of the money he earmarked for others was already gone. That was the "bad news" fallout from the "good news" of signing all 3 stars.

I didn't like how they abandoned Dressler, he was still a very productive receiver and I thought he deserved a much better ending.  Turns out he was the first of many that received the same treatment.

I guess the GM job is no different than any other boss job in a smaller organization were they can't afford to pay an underling to handle the dirty work.

[blue_gold_84]

I didn't like how they abandoned Dressler, he was still a very productive receiver and I thought he deserved a much better ending.  Turns out he was the first of many that received the same treatment.

How did they abandon him?

Not even the Riders offered him a contract after that.

[dd]

Signing old veterans who have been injured is all about risk management, do you think they can perform at their pre-injury level, yes, then sign them, no, then don't sign them. Walters reminds me of Brad Pitt in Moneyball....he wants players who can perform/get on base and will make up a lineup of guys who will get on base for him vs pay the big bucks for someone who more times than not, underperforms. He figures Woli, Bighill and Alexander aren't going to get on base this year due to injuries and I can't argue with him, why take the risk, go with younger and cheaper talent that's going to be healthy. Nobody wins anything from the tub.

[theaardvark]

Raw stats mean nothing when Woli was injured most of the season.  What was the per game stats?

By hands I meant the Burnham/Kenny ability to catch anything within an 5 yard radius of where their body is located when the ball arrives.  We haven't seen Clercius make a single diving or gumby catch.

Yes, he seems to make the catches thrown to the right spot.  Yes, he seems to hang on, and seems to be able to take punishment.  That is all good.

But no one would say he has "great hands" like we always said about Burnham.

At least, not yet.

We can be optimistic that he maintains his current level and adds some circus to it.  My point was even Woli had a few circus catches over his career: some @IGF to great applause!

Circus catches are one thing, catching 80% of your targets is another.

Good hands means not dropping catchable balls. Not sure if you are saying that a reciever needs to catch uncatchable balls, or that a QB has to be able to trust them with throws that are harder to make for him to have "good hands".
 
Clercius has been making the catches he's been asked to make.  Not sure you can ask more from a receiver.

[theaardvark]

Its a fine balance between being a nice guy and being a businessman. 

Players and coaches are all hired to be fired.  You are a valuable member of the team until you aren't, either by your play or your price. 

When the team needs to move on to a better or cheaper player, hard decisions are made. 

I don't think the Mafia do it any more cutthroat or any more callous than other teams, in fact, I think they may be on the more family side.  Telling players early that they have moved on, and won't be getting a contract offer may sound heartless, but it gives the player the opportunity to seek another situation, or decide to move to their post football life. 

Giving guys deals that are insulting, or even generous deals and then cutting them in camp is much more nasty in my books.  I think the Mafia are more a "rip the bandaid off" kind of group, and rarely say a bad word about a player or situation upon parting. 

As another poster mentioned, most of the players we have moved on from for deterioration of play have not signed elsewhere, or had very little success after.  Players we have moved on from because of price or available replacements who are better/cheaper have made contributions elsewhere, but rarely have we :missed" them. 

The exception was Grant, who clearly confounded the Mafia with his lack of communication.  Yes, we missed him, and yes, I think the Mafia undervalued him because of the position he plays and the pay normally associated with that spot.  Had they been more generous in an initial offer at the exit interview, he might be a Bomber today.  But that just doesn't appear to be in their playbook, and hindsight is 20/20. 

He is one that fell through the cracks, but in general, I think our results show that this management group knows what it is doing, from scouting new talent, to signing players to good value contracts in FA, to retaining players on reasonable deals through club culture.

I like what they do and how they do it, and hope they continue making the hard decisions correctly.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

How did they abandon him?

Not even the Riders offered him a contract after that.

The Bombers didn't offer Dressler a contract, at the time I thought HOF level players deserved more consideration, but now with Bighill I see that isn't the case. 

Back story on Dressler, the Riders screwed him out of deferred wages, when he came back from the NFL he agreed to return to Sask. for much less than the Argos offered. Taman promised to make it up in the 2nd and 3rd year and Jones reneged on the contract and cut him when he wouldn't renegotiate. Cautionary tale, Dressler thought he'd be a Rider for life and Taman was fired 2 years after winning a GC.

[TecnoGenius]

Of all those players you listed, I think Jeffcoat was the most puzzling decision. I don't know what took place in private between the two parties but I think he should've been retained. The rest seemed like sensible moves at the time.

I think Jeffcoat was the easiest decision because he literally was in the tub every single season.

Some other teams have figured out how to make half-season-injured superstars work on their roster.  Mafia clearly haven't, or don't want to.  KW doesn't want the hassle of spreadsheeting out the 6GIR SMS complications for these players.

It's kind of like the 23-snaps FAKENAT stuff.  Mafia doesn't even mess with it.  We're like the kings of KISS, sometimes to our detriment(?).

We could have made an always-injured Jeffcoat fit on the roster for 1-2 more years, for sure, especially if he agreed to no signing bonus (for SMS reasons).  But we would have had to pro-actively plan for shielding the SMS and finagled another high quality DE to play the remainder of the games.  We just didn't want to be bothered.  WFC is very inflexible in this way.

[Jesse]

Its a fine balance between being a nice guy and being a businessman. 

Players and coaches are all hired to be fired.  You are a valuable member of the team until you aren't, either by your play or your price. 

When the team needs to move on to a better or cheaper player, hard decisions are made. 

I don't think the Mafia do it any more cutthroat or any more callous than other teams, in fact, I think they may be on the more family side.  Telling players early that they have moved on, and won't be getting a contract offer may sound heartless, but it gives the player the opportunity to seek another situation, or decide to move to their post football life. 

Giving guys deals that are insulting, or even generous deals and then cutting them in camp is much more nasty in my books.  I think the Mafia are more a "rip the bandaid off" kind of group, and rarely say a bad word about a player or situation upon parting. 

As another poster mentioned, most of the players we have moved on from for deterioration of play have not signed elsewhere, or had very little success after.  Players we have moved on from because of price or available replacements who are better/cheaper have made contributions elsewhere, but rarely have we :missed" them. 

The exception was Grant, who clearly confounded the Mafia with his lack of communication.  Yes, we missed him, and yes, I think the Mafia undervalued him because of the position he plays and the pay normally associated with that spot.  Had they been more generous in an initial offer at the exit interview, he might be a Bomber today.  But that just doesn't appear to be in their playbook, and hindsight is 20/20. 

He is one that fell through the cracks, but in general, I think our results show that this management group knows what it is doing, from scouting new talent, to signing players to good value contracts in FA, to retaining players on reasonable deals through club culture.

I like what they do and how they do it, and hope they continue making the hard decisions correctly.

While we don't know how things go down, everything you say here is the exact opposite of how we've been told they let their veteran players go.

Every single one, except perhaps Woli, spoke of being left hanging without knowing what the Bombers' plans were.

[BomberFan73]

Circus catches are one thing, catching 80% of your targets is another.

Good hands means not dropping catchable balls. Not sure if you are saying that a reciever needs to catch uncatchable balls, or that a QB has to be able to trust them with throws that are harder to make for him to have "good hands".
 
Clercius has been making the catches he's been asked to make.  Not sure you can ask more from a receiver.

Ya, I think Clercius will be a good one. Most physical Nat WR since Cory Watson.

[TecnoGenius]

While we don't know how things go down, everything you say here is the exact opposite of how we've been told they let their veteran players go.

Every single one, except perhaps Woli, spoke of being left hanging without knowing what the Bombers' plans were.

You beat me to it.  They are left hanging there thinking they are getting their normal re-up call/contract and then days pass, weeks pass, crickets.

I don't think Woli was an exception.  He said in one of his recent pressers he was very surprised when a new WFC offer didn't show up.  As were most of the rest of us fans.

[TecnoGenius]

Walters reminds me of Brad Pitt in Moneyball....he wants players who can perform/get on base and will make up a lineup of guys who will get on base for him vs pay the big bucks for someone who more times than not, underperforms.

I often think of that movie in terms of CFL.  I bet the CFL GMs/scouts are much like the "old" ones in that movie.  I always wonder what a stats nerd could do if given the ability to shape a roster, and work things like the 23-snaps FAKENAT rule...

This year may be the first season in a while where KW is taking more of a hire "get on base" guys instead of the sluggers.  Our new batch of RECs especially is indicative of that.  It'll be an interesting year!

[TecnoGenius]

I don't think the Mafia do it any more cutthroat or any more callous than other teams, in fact, I think they may be on the more family side.

This is true.  I don't mean to single out WFC.  I'm sure there are different GM styles in play, but I don't think any ex-player would say we were abnormally abusive or neglectful.

As another poster mentioned, most of the players we have moved on from for deterioration of play have not signed elsewhere, or had very little success after.  Players we have moved on from because of price or available replacements who are better/cheaper have made contributions elsewhere, but rarely have we :missed" them. 

Also true.  We've had a very good record of getting rid of guys who then go on to be injured, retired, or produce very little for another team.  The exception would be OL (and QB), but they are a special case.

We've shed many DL, LB, DB, RB, REC who go on to do not much of anything.  Out of every 3-5 we drop, maybe 1 continues to have success.

Some of Buono must have rubbed off on KW.  In some ways we may be even better at it!  Buono dropped AH33 when he was in his prime.  We dropped him when he was at the end.

[TecnoGenius]

The Bombers didn't offer Dressler a contract, at the time I thought HOF level players deserved more consideration, but now with Bighill I see that isn't the case. 

Not just HOF players, but probably RoH players (who are much rarer)!  The first, even before Biggie's cut, was AH33.  That was a tough cut to swallow, even though it was probably correct.

Too bad the CFL can't have some "final 1-2 years" carve out for franchise players so teams can keep on an aging guy to maybe take half snaps or start half the games.  Like an extra $100k off the SMS only for a 5+ year same-team vet, and only 1 player a year.  Maybe they get a free dress as a bonus DI too!

I would have given anything to see AH33 play that last year here instead of TOR, even if Brady was getting 80% of the snaps.  We probably would have won that 3rd cup, even AH was just dressed as rah-rah support.

[blue_gold_84]

The Bombers didn't offer Dressler a contract, at the time I thought HOF level players deserved more consideration, but now with Bighill I see that isn't the case.

Yeah, the team advised him ahead of free agency that they were going in another direction and they wouldn't be offering him a new contract.

That doesn't fit the definition of abandon - at all. As is the case with the other players you listed.

I think Jeffcoat was the easiest decision because he literally was in the tub every single season.

He still played 2/3 or more of every season he was here. I'd have taken that over what we had to watch with the D-line last year. Jefferson had very little support on the opposite end.

I can only speculate Walters wasn't interested in offering him a contract without conditions/incentives related to his durability. Whatever happened, it's still a shame to see his career end the way it did; I thought he deserved better.